(554c) Lime Pretreatment Of Poplar Wood

The enzymatic digestibility of poplar wood is enhanced by treating with lime plus oxygen. Two types of treatments have been explored: (1) long-term and (2) short-term. The long-term treatment requires 1 to 2 months at 25 to 65 C with 1-atm air. The short-term treatment requires about 6 h at 150 C with 14-atm oxygen. Because of its high lignin content, poplar wood responds better to the short-term treatment, which is more aggressive. The short-term treatment allows the digestion of 90% of cellulose and 83% of hemicellulose using a moderate enzyme loading of 15 FPU/g glucan in the original biomass.